Last Chance Blogging

*I wanted to write about commenting, blogging, and giveaways a few weeks ago.
Instead, I wrote a quick note and left it sit in my draft folder for a long time.Here's what I've come up with followed by a related post from an awesome chica.
To spare you time, I'll break this up over a few posts.*

Since I recently came upon having a ton of free time, I've taken blogging to the.Next.LEVEL! a la Last Chance Workout style via: Last Chance Blogging.
Here's a weird little tale, beginning with the cycle........

I go through phases when it comes to blogging.

I read a ton,

then write a ton,

and then find tons of new blogs that I stalk uh... visit quite obsessively for awhile.


It's kind of a vicious cycle.
As in, I have no balance.

I either go blog-reading-crazy or blog-writing-crazy.

And then I joined up on bloglovin and this cycle became crazy-slanted towards the reading-other-blogs-obsessively side.
Like when you put a huge load of laundry in the washing machine and it gets super lopsided and makes crashing-whopping-faLUMPing! sounds when it gets off-kilter.

In my efforts to keep up with an insane amount of blogs, and then new blogs on top of my old blogs, while forgetting about oldies-but-goodies, I became a little overwhelmed and stopped enjoying reading for my original pleasures.
I wasn't reading blogs simply because they spoke to me about faith, being a woman, family, creating, or writing.
I was just reading out of pure insanity. Trying to stay on top. (Like I could.)


So, I started to calm things down.

I slowed down.

Frankly, I ran out of time, wasn't enjoying it as much, and felt overwhelmed by all. the. posts!


And since those things happened,
I tried (for reals this time,) to evaluate this frustrating cycle so I could stop the madness!

I realized, that I need to spend my time (if any), only reading things that are honest, uplift, teach, or encourage.

And that, my dear, rules out a lot of things.

For me, blogs can take on those various roles in different ways.

.Sharing a diy tutorial is an uplifting, teaching, and encouraging thing for me.
.Sharing the mundane details/facts of the day is honest and can easily be uplifting.
.Sharing daily outfits (if even of dirty hair or sweats) is an honest and encouraging thing.
.Sharing verses, passages, books, and inspirations is very encouraging, teaching, and uplifting.
.Sharing real. life. stories. is an incredibly honest and encouraging thing.
.Sharing when the hm-hm hits the fan is honest and encourages me to do the same.
.Sharing joys, fears, happiness, sadness, mistakes, success, grief, guilt, remorse, depression, and worries is very honest and also encourages me to do the same.

Doing all of those things basically encourages me to do the same.

Also, I realized that I really only want to post those types of things.
In the end, I want to spend my time now to help remember truly meaningful things in the future.
If I experience something worth remembering two years from now, I'll share it here. If not, it's just a waste of my time here, in the present.

Therefore, I'm going to purge.

I'm going to stop reading things that do not meet my ideas of a good blog & I'll 'unfollow' them if I need to.

No hard feelings.

I just want to take my life back again- in the best way possible :)


But wait, there's more! Check out these for thoughts on commenting and giveaways.